Research Article:

Walston, J., Robinson, J. G., Bennett, E. L., Breitenmoser, U., da Fonseca, G. A. B., Goodrich, J., Gumal, M., Hunter, L., Johnson, A., Karanth, K. U., Leader-Williams, N., MacKinnon, K., Miquelle, D. G., Pattanavibool, A., Poole, C., Rabinowitz, A., Smith, J. L. D., Stokes, E. J., Stuart, S. N., . . . Wibisono, H. (2010). Bringing the tiger back from the brink-The six percent solution. PLOS Biology, 8(9), e1000485.

Blog Author: Apoorva Sodhi

Key highlights: 

• Wild tigers have disappeared from much of their former range, but some important breeding populations still survive in a small number of protected areas across Asia.
• The study identifies 42 key ‘Source Sites’, or places where tiger populations can survive, breed, and potentially help restore tiger numbers in surrounding landscapes.
• These sites hold most of the world’s remaining wild tigers, even though together they cover only a small fraction of the tiger’s current range.
• Protecting these areas through stronger law enforcement, better monitoring, and reduced hunting pressure can offer a practical way to prevent further tiger declines.
• While large landscapes remain important in the long run, the immediate priority is to secure the places where tigers are still breeding.
• Focused conservation action can be both achievable and cost-effective, especially when conservation groups and local communities work together.

Wild tigers once roamed widely across Asia, but today they survive in only a small part of their former range. Their decline has been driven by over-hunting, loss of prey, shrinking and fragmented habitats, and the illegal trade in tiger parts. While this is a serious conservation concern, this study suggests that the practical way forward, which can make a real difference, is to protect the places where tigers are still breeding.

The paper highlights that tiger recovery is possible when protection is focused and consistent. Some protected areas in India, for example, have witnessed stable or increasing tiger populations where there has been strong protection, management, and long-term monitoring. 

The authors identify 42 important areas called ‘Source Sites’ where tiger populations still have the potential to survive, reproduce, and support recovery in nearby landscapes. Although these sites make up only 6 percent of the global tiger range, they contain a significant proportion of its total population. This makes these sites especially important for securing the future of tigers. They argue that conservation efforts should first focus on securing these priority sites, rather than spreading limited resources too thinly across very large landscapes. Protecting these areas can help prevent the loss of the last remaining breeding populations and give tiger numbers a better chance to recover. This is the ‘six percent solution’ offered by the authors.

It is thus emphasized that the short-term goal is to protect the source sites, suggesting that this is financially viable. This would include rigorous protection of these sites with regular patrolling, stringent law enforcement, efficient management and monitoring of breeding tiger populations, and strengthening support for the staff managing these landscapes. In places where people and tigers live close to each other, reducing conflict is also an important part of long-term conservation. 

At the same time, tigers need connected habitats to move, breed, and disperse over time. Therefore, the long-term goal is to conserve an Asia-wide network of large tiger landscapes with the concerted commitment of State governments and the international community, as well as public support. 

Thus, the core idea of the study is that in order to bring tigers back from the brink, conservation efforts must first secure the sites where they still have the strongest chance of survival. Protecting these areas can buy time, support recovery, and keep the future of wild tigers alive!

To access the original article, click here.

Keywords: Tigers, source sites, tiger conservation, protected areas, wildlife recovery, poaching, prey protection, conservation planning, Asia, biodiversity.